Smart Tips For Setting Realistic New Year’s Resolutions That You’ll Keep
For the past few years, I’ve avoided setting New Year’s resolutions. If I made them, I would break them… within two weeks. But this year I’m setting realistic New Year’s resolutions, and I plan to keep them!
I admit I have very little willpower when faced with tough resolutions like getting fit, cutting out junk food completely and so on.
However, this coming year, with a focus on making myself a better person, I’m setting realistic New Year resolutions.
Why Realistic New Year’s Resolutions?
When you set a goal of losing X-amount of weight by the end of the year, the chances are, you won’t get there. I read once that acknowledging that you feel great when you’re fit is a much better way to approach weight loss.
So setting a realistic resolution of doing SOME physical activity is more doable. With this comes a conscious effort to actually do it. It ends up actually helping you achieve your goals.
When you make it super simple and doable without the need to invest huge amounts of time and effort, keeping to a resolution is much easier.
| Read More: 10 Toxic Things To Remove From Your Life This Year For More Happiness
How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
There are many ways people go about keeping their New Year’s Resolutions. Here are some that might work for you:
- The simpler and doable they are, the easier it is to keep them
- Give yourself a reward at the end of the month for keeping to them
- Give yourself a shorter timeline.
- Break up your resolutions into chunks. Don’t focus on them all at the same time.
- Keep a journal.
- Know that you’ll fail occasionally, but get back to the resolution as soon as possible.
Setting Realistic New Year’s Resolutions: Ideas For You
So now that you know how to keep them, what are some that you can adopt?
I’ve decided to take on these resolutions for the coming year.
Resolution #1: Daily 20 Minutes Of Heart-Pumping Physical Activity
I can spare 20 minutes a day. Twenty minutes of cardio activity is doable in so many ways. A walk during lunch. A quick bout of speed-walking on the treadmill in the morning.
Dancing in place while I watch TV in the evening. A brisk walk around the grocery store instead of a slow shopping experience.
Just keep moving!
| RELATED: How Hiking Keeps You Fit And Healthy
Resolution #2: Keeping An Eye On Portion Size
Grab the smaller plate! This New Year’s goal is much easier than you think.
Part of my problem is that I enjoy food a bit too much. Combine this love with stress eating and a desk job, and voila, there’s a couple of pounds added every month.
Thinking about how much I eat throughout the day will not only help my waistline but also ensure that I’m not feeling overly full and sluggish at the end of each meal. This is good for the body as well as the mind.
So smaller plates, here I come!
Resolution #3: Acknowledge My Happiness
How often do we complain about what’s wrong in our lives to our spouses, family members, friends and even co-workers?
This realistic New Year’s Resolution is one that benefits your soul and mind.
Instead of being a negative person, I’m going to strive to think about everything that’s good in my life.
Waking up each morning, we normally flip on the news and are faced with reports of yet another murder or car crash on the streets of Toronto. We see skewed, biased news reports that piss us off on a deeper level. We shake our heads, wondering how the world has gone topsy-turvy. And we forget that in our own little worlds, we have so much happiness.
- We have a roof over our heads and food in the refrigerator.
- We have our health.
- We have family members that are all doing well, including older parents that are still with us.
- We have an adorable little boy who is growing up to be this funny, smart person that loves us unconditionally.
We – my husband and I – have a love, deep friendship and respect for each other that many others wish they had.
This is our happiness that we need to remind ourselves of each morning.
Resolution #4: Don’t Stress Over The Small Stuff
Setting this realistic New Year’s Resolution is for the busy mommas out there…
As a first-time mom, I’m coming to the realization that my life as I had known it up to now, is never coming back.
I’ve got responsibilities that take up that precious “me time” that I enjoyed for so many years. With these responsibilities comes stress and the desire to keep everything organized and running smoothly.
Well, guess what buttercup… motherhood turns everything upside down in your life. Bad days happen on a regular basis.
For example the consistent occurrence of having your baby decide to poop just as you sit down to eat your dinner. It happens EVERY TIME. Or dropping your keys as you hold him while trying to get going out the door in the morning (try doing squats with a 23 lb 9-month-old).
I’m resolving to laugh a bit more about these mishaps. They’re little things that happen that I have no control over, so why stress out?
| Related: How To Stop Stressing Over Every Little Thing In Your Life
If I Fall Off The Resolution Wagon
I will inevitably fall off the wagon, even by setting realistic New Year’s resolutions. The goal will be to keep getting back on that resolution wagon and keep going.
My friends, I ask that you check in on me. Ask me if I’m keeping to my resolutions. A bit of guilt helps me get back on the wagon.
My biggest cheerleader is my husband Frank. I’m putting him in the role of an official nagger. He has my permission to push me to keep to my resolutions because even if they are realistic, it’s easy to become lazy after a while.
QUESTION: What are your realistic New Year’s Resolutions? If you don’t have any, why not?
